A cylinder head gasket is known in the art comprising a gasket body having a combustion chamber opening formed in alignment with a cylinder bore, and a shim ring surrounding the combustion chamber opening, the shim ring being spot welded along a circumferentially extending weld line to the gasket body (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 293,700/1995).
The spacing of the spot weldings is chosen so as to enable the shim ring to be firmly welded to the gasket body. With a recent trend toward achieving a higher output from the engine, the spacing of the spot weldings need be reduced. However, this causes a distortion to be produced in the shim ring under the influence of heat generated during the welding operation. Thus there has been a definite limit on the spacing of spot weldings which can be reduced.